Boardwalk

Sun leathered skin, tanned and flayed
lies draped over the bench’s wooden slats.
A long-forgotten art brought back to
lack-lustre life
along the boardwalk.
•
This wrinkled pre-aged skin,
pricked in not so neat lines
each track a stop on the journey
that brings their nodding half-lives
to the boardwalk.
•
The coke and ice-cream hit, not for their
uncared for, condemned kids
but to feed a sugar rush,
stave off that comedown
on the boardwalk.
•
Thick syrup methodone, a sop
to replace the brown heroin
that once kissed their veins,
kicks in as they shadow walk
to the boardwalk
•
Calloused, cracked skin spreads
factor 50, to protect the delicate
casing of their ravaged organs
as they lie, replete,
along the boardwalk.